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T he black stone in the center of the weird room drops suddenly with a grinding noise. It sets off my cough again, but fortunately Rosalie still has the water, and I take sips until the spasm subsides. The rest of the ladies push themselves back against the walls.

“Last time it did that, one of those things came out. It was gross,” Scarlett mutters. “So gross.” She shudders.

The stone rises back up. There are containers on it.

“Are they feeding us?” I ask.

“I wouldn’t call it food,” Maggie says. “In fact I don’t know what to call it other than slop.”

“If they’re feeding us, they want us for something.” I contemplate the containers. They’re white and the stuff inside looks like oatmeal.

“No shit,” Scarlett says. “I don’t need to bang a dragon man to work that one out.”

Maggie huffs out a laugh.

“If you keep that up, I’ll give you a blow by blow detail of all the differences between a man and a Sarkarnii.”

“Oh god no!” Rosalie cries, covering her eyes.

“I do NOT want to know.” Lydia covers her ears.

“I promise I’ll shut Scarlett up.” Maggie covers Scarlett’s mouth, and she squeaks.

There’s a scuttling sound overhead, and all the mirth in the room disappears.

“Is that one of them?” I whisper.

Maggie still has her hand over Scarlett’s mouth. Scarlett nods, her eyes wide with fear. The sound continues as if there is more than one.

“ The females will remain still.”

The voice drops into my brain.

“Did anyone else hear that?”

“It’s how they communicate,” Rosalie says, pressing herself against the wall. “Some sort of telepathy, we think.”

I make a grab for the containers on the flat stone.

“What are you doing?” Lydia asks.

“If you think I’m sitting here while alien cockroaches crawl all over me, it’s not happening,” I hiss.

Part of the wall cracks into pieces which slowly dissolve as if wanting to spin out the fear. A set of antennae flick over the edges as the Veseli sticks its head in.

I throw the first canister. It bounces off the thing. The head, such as it is, disappears again.

“You’re only going to piss them off,” Maggie says.

“Good.” I heave the other canister into my throwing hand. “Why should they be happy when I’m not? If they were going to kill us, they’d have done it by now.”

The wall closes over again.

“See,” I point out triumphantly. “A little resistance goes a long way.”

The general mutterings suggest my sentiments are not shared.

“The female will put down the projectile or no further food will be provided.”

Balls. It seems like resistance is overrated.

I put down the container. Even if the food isn’t popular, I don’t want us to be starved into compliance. Not only will it be distinctly unpleasant, but it would mean they have an intent to keep us for a long time.

I am not hanging around to be a prisoner of an alien cockroach.

Not when Darax is out there somewhere. I miss him like my heart has been ripped from my chest. I thought I hated him.

I don’t.

Not because I’m in the hands of the Veseli. But because somehow, sometime, he’s wormed his way into my psyche, become part of me in a way I was not expecting.

An image of Deus flits through my mind. The warring brothers. One who wanted revenge but when it came to it, he couldn’t carry it through. A brother who thought he was doing the right thing, whatever that was, in keeping Deus out of the way.

I’ve seen what loss is like to a Sarkarnii in the haunted eyes of Deus. I don’t want that for Darax.

The wall dissolves again, and this time the Veseli comes through faster, angling its armoured back towards us. We huddle together.

“ Take the one who has mated with the Sarkarnii.” The words crawl into my brain.

Pincers reach out, grabbing hold of my leg.

“This one stinks of Sarkarnii.”

“Get off.” I kick at the hooked, hairy leg. Maggie and Rosalie grab hold of me, attempting to hold on, but it has the hooks in my trousers, and with a tremendous tug, I’m pulled away.

“I’ll be back,” I shout at my terrified friends as I’m dragged from the room and out into the clutches of the Veseli.

Outside of our cell, I’m in a vast space which is filled with round, egg-shaped structures. There are so many of them I can’t count.

“ Walk ,” I am ordered.

I look over my shoulder, but now the egg/room looks like any other. Closed and sealed. A pincer slams into my shoulder, sending me forward.

If I wanted a reminder the Veseli are not friendly, I got one.

Two of them move in front of me while two take up the rear. I’m doing my best to breathe through my mouth rather than my nose as the stench is overwhelming. Somewhere in the vast space, there is a deep, echoing roar.

“We have your Sarkarnii .” The words hit my mind like a sledgehammer. “His capture means you both belong to us.”

My stomach hits the floor, my boots dragging and all my limbs feeling like they are filled with lead.

“What do you want?”

“ Control .” The word reverberates inside my head. “ And we will have it with you and the Sarkarnii. He will help us destroy the others, and he will give us back the galaxy for our own use.”

I do not want to be used in this way. I want to fight, but I don’t know if fighting will get me anywhere.

But here, surrounded by the giant cockroaches, I don’t think I have a choice. No matter what my friends have said, here and now, there is no choice at all. Live or die, I’m going to affect Darax and not in a good way.

There’s every chance this will result in bloodshed, and I fear it will be his.